Garba Sharubutu, executive secretary of Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), says the council has recruited 1,650 scientists to boost food security in the country.

Mr Sharubutu disclosed this at a news conference on Friday in Abuja.

He said the federal government approved the recruitment with specific instructions to engage plant breeders to develop more varieties of crops.

Mr Sharubutu added that the scientists had already been trained and they were expected to pass on the knowledge by training others under the supervision of the council.

“The federal government approved the recruitment of 1,650 scientists to boost staff strength in the areas of research, and the instruction is for us to recruit breeders. Those who are going to bring about the genetic improvement of our local crops.

“This administration is taking the subject matter of food security very seriously and since they came on board, they decided that we must ensure that food is placed on the table, and our advice to the government is to concentrate on quick maturing crops,’ he explained.

Mr Sharubutu added, “These quick maturing crops are rice, yam, cassava, wheat, guinea corn, millet, and maize.

“We advise that other commodities should not be neglected; we cannot neglect the cash crops because of the need to diversify, and if you look at the mandate of the president and his priority list, he mentioned food security as number one.”

According to him, the council is working on varieties of crops to ensure Nigeria is self-sufficient in food production.

Mr Sharubutu said Nigeria had been able to develop and release beans and maize varieties that were resistant to insect pests, adding that the council had gone ahead to develop models that would help in storage.

He said the National Stored Products Research Institute, Ilorin, had a lot of models for the storage of yam, cassava, and grains.

 (NAN)